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Lot Essay
This beautifully preserved painting executed with a fluid handling of paint is an outstanding portrait by the Florentine contemporary of Bronzino (they were born in the same year), Michele Tosini. It was catalogued as the work of Bronzino when it was exhibited both by Jacques Goudstikker in 1927, and in the 1934 exhibition of Italian paintings at the Stedelijk Museum. Our understanding of the complex knot of artists working in the court of Cosimo I de' Medici has gradually improved and the identities of lesser artists, such as Francesco Brini and Bartolomeo Tribalesi, and more significant painters including Machietti, Cavalori and Maso di San Friano, have become better known.
It is with this group that Michele Tosini belongs, an artist at the center of Medician culture, who painted Cosimo de' Medici himself and who was invited by Vasari to work on the cycle of portraits commissioned as decorations for the newly built Palazzo Vecchio.
This portrait, whose emphatically articulate architectural background refers to his Vasarian milieu, is a characteristic work by Michele. The deeply shadowed eyes, the fluently painted hair, the crisp drawing of the mouth and the broad transparent handling of the background are all hallmarks of his style. The relationship of the sitter to a monochromatic architectural background may be compared to that in A Man with a Dog (fig. 1; Galerie Sarti, Paris) while the supple modeling of the hands which cross over each other recall those in Lady with a Book (fig. 2) in the Pitti Palace, Florence.
Another smaller portrait of what may be the same sitter, without the architectural background, is in the Art Institute, Chicago. Originally attributed to Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (Michele's teacher from whom he derived his soubriquet Michele di Ridolfo), the Chicago picture was given to Bronzino by Voss and Berenson, among others, until its correct attribution to Michele Tosini was recognized by Everett Fahy in 1967.
Michele Tosini was prized for his depiction of women, particularly his idealized female half lengths - Lucretias, Magdalenes, Ledas - and given their popularity, many were executed by studio assistants. This painting is an extremely rare example of a fully autograph portrait from life of a Florentine noblewoman.
We are grateful to Dr. Heidi J. Hornik for confirming the attribution to Tosini on the basis of a transparency. She includes this painting among a group of female portraits attributed to Tosini that can be dated to the early 1560s (in the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, and the Metropolitan Museum, New York). Dr. Hornik notes: 'Michele Tosini in the 1560s and 1570s was directing one of the largest and most productive workshops in Florence. This portrait would have been commissioned at the same time that Tosini and the workshop were painting a private fresco chapel for the Strozzi family. His Mannerist style of painting was influenced by his friends and colleagues Agnolo Bronzino and Giorgio Vasari with whom he worked on the formation of the Accademia del Disegno in 1563'. Dr. Larry Feinberg also, on the basis of a photograph, regards it as an autograph work by Michele and compares it to another portrait attributed to Tosini in the Pitti Palace in which the modeling and drawing of the hands of the sitter are almost identical to this painting. Everett Fahy has also endorsed the attribution to Tosini.
It is with this group that Michele Tosini belongs, an artist at the center of Medician culture, who painted Cosimo de' Medici himself and who was invited by Vasari to work on the cycle of portraits commissioned as decorations for the newly built Palazzo Vecchio.
This portrait, whose emphatically articulate architectural background refers to his Vasarian milieu, is a characteristic work by Michele. The deeply shadowed eyes, the fluently painted hair, the crisp drawing of the mouth and the broad transparent handling of the background are all hallmarks of his style. The relationship of the sitter to a monochromatic architectural background may be compared to that in A Man with a Dog (fig. 1; Galerie Sarti, Paris) while the supple modeling of the hands which cross over each other recall those in Lady with a Book (fig. 2) in the Pitti Palace, Florence.
Another smaller portrait of what may be the same sitter, without the architectural background, is in the Art Institute, Chicago. Originally attributed to Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (Michele's teacher from whom he derived his soubriquet Michele di Ridolfo), the Chicago picture was given to Bronzino by Voss and Berenson, among others, until its correct attribution to Michele Tosini was recognized by Everett Fahy in 1967.
Michele Tosini was prized for his depiction of women, particularly his idealized female half lengths - Lucretias, Magdalenes, Ledas - and given their popularity, many were executed by studio assistants. This painting is an extremely rare example of a fully autograph portrait from life of a Florentine noblewoman.
We are grateful to Dr. Heidi J. Hornik for confirming the attribution to Tosini on the basis of a transparency. She includes this painting among a group of female portraits attributed to Tosini that can be dated to the early 1560s (in the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, and the Metropolitan Museum, New York). Dr. Hornik notes: 'Michele Tosini in the 1560s and 1570s was directing one of the largest and most productive workshops in Florence. This portrait would have been commissioned at the same time that Tosini and the workshop were painting a private fresco chapel for the Strozzi family. His Mannerist style of painting was influenced by his friends and colleagues Agnolo Bronzino and Giorgio Vasari with whom he worked on the formation of the Accademia del Disegno in 1563'. Dr. Larry Feinberg also, on the basis of a photograph, regards it as an autograph work by Michele and compares it to another portrait attributed to Tosini in the Pitti Palace in which the modeling and drawing of the hands of the sitter are almost identical to this painting. Everett Fahy has also endorsed the attribution to Tosini.